The Start

I remember being 23yrs old and walking up the stairs to my 3rd floor apartment and when I got to the 3rd floor I was winded. I could not believe it. I thought to myself "WOW how did I let myself get this way???"...I sat on the couch with my boyfriend at the time, told him what had happened and I said "I think I am going to start running"....that very night I signed up for my first 5k(3.1miles) as an adult... My ex and I drove around my complex and measured the distance around the circle we lived in. 1.1mile was the verdict. Every day for the next six months I was determined to get back in to shape and run that 5k...I started out running to one telephone pole and then walked....ran to another telephone pole then walked...Each day I tried to go a little bit more...before you know it 1 mile became 2miles and 2miles became 3miles etc....

The BIG DAY came for the 5k and the very second I crossed the finish line I decided I was going to do a 10k(6.2 miles)...a few months later I was back in Magic Kingdom running a 10k...the same process went for the 10k, 4miles went into 5miles etc...each month the distance kept increasing...

The EXACT same thought came when I crossed the 10k finish line, at that very moment I wanted to run a 1/2 Marathon(13.1miles)...Exactly 1 year from my winded experience on the stairs I dropped 26 pounds and was crossing the finish line in Miami 13.1 miles later...

2 weeks prior to the 1/2 Marathon I had been diagnosed with a rare tumor called a Phyllodes Tumor that generally affects less then 1% of the world and within that 1% it is typically in women over 40 and who are generally Asian...go figure I was 24 and definitely not Asian just my luck...2 opinions later it needs to come out!

After the 1/2 Marathon I had the surgery and everything is PERFECT now!! Needless to say I stopped running for a while...September rolled around and I was packing on the pounds. I was depressed, emotionally eating, my relationship was on the rocks from the whole tumor experience, every thing seemed to be turning for the worse....One day I woke up and said it's time to run a marathon(26.2miles) now. I knew that training for a marathon was going to be time consuming and would keep my mind off of the negatives going on in my life...sooooo for the next 18 weeks of my life I had to restart my running process allllllll over again! One telephone pole, walk, 2 telephone poles, walk! Ohh my goodness I couldn't believe I had to start all over again!! 18weeks later I was back in Disney, dropped the weight yet again, and ran the Disney Marathon...

March, 2 Months after the Disney Marathon, my long term relationship was over...running came to a halt when I really should have used running as an outlet to get over a broken heart. After throwing about a 5month pity party for myself I decided that I was running the Vegas Marathon that December and my 18weeks of training started alllllll over again for the THIRD TIME!!! Walk, run, walk, run....18 weeks later I crossed the finish line in Vegas!

A Tumor, A Broken Heart, and 30pounds later brings me to 2009!! I am single, I am fat, and completely miserable! LOL....I realized that distance running was the one thing that made me happy in every negative situation possible...No matter what was going on in my life my running shoes and my ipod were my two saving graces...I had to set a race date! Setting a race date always gave me a goal to work towards...I was googling what I wanted to run next and accidentally came across this website: http://www.50statesmarathonclub.com/50dc/index.html# At that very moment I knew what my next goal was!!!!!! I decided I was going to run 50 Marathons in 50 States!!!! Since I have run Florida and Vegas already that meant I only had 48 states to go!!!

In the 50 Marathons Club one qualification is that you must complete valid marathons in 10 different US states. 2 down 8 to go!!!

I invite you all to join me on my journey across the UNITED STATES...I will experience the true beauty of America through running....

Next Stop: Providence, Rhode Island May 2, 2010....